CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO
Graduate school sucks.
It is the ultimate good-mood buster especially when all you want to do is to just binge-watch movies and television series on Netflix, but there is a technical report to finish and a focus group discussion (FGD) to conduct to Grade 6 pupils.
I could easily pass a role as a zombie from The Walking Dead in the last three months of balancing school, work and family life as I try to earn my badge as an M.A. student.
This would have been easy had I been 18 years old, single and singularly focus on getting school done.
But I am 32-year-old married woman with three children, who runs a non-profit organization on a voluntary basis, who writes stories for a living and lives in the suburban town of Liloan, which is one to two hours away from Cebu City depending on this island’s traffic situation.
A course requirement involved interviewing a scientist, write a technical paper about it, make a popularized version of that paper and then run an focus group discussion (FGD) with a chosen audience.
That is just Assignment 1; I am not even talking about the weekly discussion forum, the written and virtual report per group, and Assignment 2, which involves organizing a scientific conference and then writing another paper about it.
If you are dizzy at this point, congratulations!
You now know what it feels to be in my shoes.
I wanted to put this experience in my list of regrets.
I have been complaining about my lack of sleep and overall grouchy mood because of graduate school until I interviewed Lisa Paguntalan, executive director of Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc.
I met Lisa in 2010 when I worked for the Philippine Business for Social Progress, under a program ran in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
It was from Lisa and her colleague, Godfrey “Godo” Jakosalem, that my knowledge about Cebu’s endemic or native plant and animal species expanded.
I also met Orlyn Orlanes-Roxas, another friend of Lisa and Godo, from whom I learned about Cebu’s forest cover.
In 2011, as part of PBSP’S Cebu Hillylands Reforestation Caravan, mini-lectures were held in Sitio Cantipla, Barangay Tabunan to enrich the experience and learnings of volunteer tree planters about Cebu’s flora and fauna.
Lisa, Godo and Orlyn were there.
I was assigned to do a storytelling session under the Inquirer Read-along program.
The children of the mountain barangay listened to our stories as they were seated on mats spread on the forest ground.
The birds chirped, trees swayed, children listened; a perfect ecosystem.
This was the most memorable environmental activity that PBSP Visayas organized under the leadership of Jessie Cubijano.
On August 2012, the PBSP team worked once again with Lisa and Godo for the unveiling of the Cebu hawk owl (Ninox rumseyi) as a separate species.
Known as bukaw or pakpak-tuhok, the Cebu hawk owl was formally considered as a subspecies of the Philippine hawk owl.
The research team, led by Dr. Pamela Rasmussen of the Michigan State University, said the Cebu hawk owl has a unique call that is distinct from other owls.
I was the emcee in that unveiling ceremony in Cebu.
Simultaneous events were done in the US and UK that day.
Recalling my joy and pride of being part of a momentous event fueled me to work on Assignment 1.
As I interviewed Lisa for my technical report, I decided to make “Did You Know” posters about four endemics and one migratory bird as part of an environmental awareness education campaign to teach children about our native and endemic species.
I was all excited last October 30 as I faced 33 Grade 6 pupils of Canduman Elementary School to discuss the posters, the technical report and their insights about these materials.
School Principal Merinisa Olvido accommodated my request to conduct the FGD in her school.
You should have seen how their eyes widened in amazement as I told them about the Cebu hawk-owl, Black Shama (Copsychus cebuensis), Cebu cinnammon tree (Cinamomum cebuense), Cebu flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor), and Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes).
The Chinese egret is a migratory bird from Northern China that flies to our wetlands particularly in the Olango and Cansaga-Kalawisan Bay during winter season.
We had an hour or so of lecture, discussion and reporting, which ended with a souvenir group photo on the stage of the school.
The last two days, I have been holed up in my home office working on putting together Assignment 1.
I still think graduate school sucks.
But the results of this scientific paper and the FGD doesn’t.
I also received good news that an organization is interested to transform the information about these endemics into storybooks useful for teachers and students.
It is time to get creative about science.